Season of Giving
by verisimilitude9
Summary: Eight drabbles written by request for Christmas, featuring senshi/shitennou romance and friendship. Spans a multitude of different settings and timelines.
1. Chapter 1

Prompt: Rei/Jadeite, Russian Roulette

Setting: Silver Millennium

* * *

She's gorgeous and vengeful when she descends to Earth, the force of her fury almost palpable as she storms through the garden single-mindedly, fragile flower petals trembling in her path. Jadeite, out of compassion as much as curiosity, steps into her path and introduces himself before she can mow down a terrified novice guard. She allows herself only a modicum of civility at their first meeting, duties coming first, anger at her disobedient liege blazing in her cheeks and flashing in her eyes.

The next meeting is more civil, and they take the time to talk and learn about each other. There is always an underlying sense of danger, though, and she's like her element: beautiful and untamed, and he knows that one wrong move on the part of Earth's citizens against the alliance will cause the senshi to rain destruction upon his world.

Loving her is like a deadly game of chance which originated in the coldest Northern regions of his kingdom, played by soldiers losing hope with a revolver loaded with a single bullet. He has never been suicidal, but he can't stay away from her and her heat and her amethyst eyes and the taste of her lips. Every meeting spins the gun chamber.

On the tenth, as her kingdom and his are both burning and she and hers have been declared enemies of the Earth, the gun goes off and their lives and love are obliterated with a bang. In the last five minutes of their lives, they lie together and hold hands and find a belated peace and absolution.

That was, he supposed, the inevitable fate.


	2. Chapter 2

Prompt: Inner senshi, friendship

Setting: Silver Millennium

* * *

It is a full moon celebration outside and in the palace, five girls commandeer an unused ballroom with giggles and bright eyes. Four of them are ten, warriors in training who have yet to see bloodshed, and one is seven, a princess who truly believes in happily ever after and the treasures found at the ends of rainbows. They're still young enough to laugh without bitterness, to sleep without nightmares, and to dance without proper musical accompaniment.

Serenity puffs a little to keep up with her guardians, who with their advantage of three years of age and longer legs make the quick dash to the ballroom faster than her. Mars and Venus hold yards of frilled fabric bundled up like a banner between them as they run down the corridor, Mercury laughs as she struggles to open the door without dropping the box she has in her hands, and Jupiter doubles back to pick up the flowers fallen from the garland she's trailing.

It is a full moon celebration outside and in the palace, five girls hold their own makeshift masquerade in fine gowns borrowed from the wardrobes of ladies of the court reveling elsewhere, dancing in satin slippers several sizes too big with flowers haphazardly stuck in their hair to the music of their own innocent laughter. Eyes still bright and carefree shine behind masks constructed of paper and beads and bits of feathers, and without words they link hands and renew their vows of friendship and unity. It doesn't mean less now, in grown-up gowns that trail to the floor and a room they probably should have asked before being in, than it will in another ten years when they will be adults and have dominion over their own courts and call their own festivity days to their kingdoms.


	3. Chapter 3

Prompt: Hometown Glory

Setting: Modern-Day NYC, AU

* * *

New York is hot in the summertime, and even amidst the hustle and bustle and general indifference of Manhattan's denizens, the young woman cuts quite the figure in oversized movie-star shades and a skirt that reveals slim, perfect legs. She wanders up and down the busy streets, high heels clacking against pavement, and if her gait weren't so confident, someone might have asked if she was lost.

She stops at a building that looks nondescript in the daylight, and pulls her sunglasses off her face, and smiles when she sees a tall young man with blond hair step forward, tough and stalwart, all battered jeans and watchful blue eyes. His lips curve upward as she approaches, and he reaches for her hand.

"You wanted to meet here?" Raye asks questioningly, staring up at a sign that doesn't look like much in daylight, neon unlit and windows shuttered. "Etoile Rouge doesn't look like much before nightfall, hmm?"

"No," Jake chuckles, and as she leans back against him, both of them pause, silently content just to stand still for a moment and watch the city with its distinct mix of chaos and culture flow in its usual brisk rhythm around them. "Some things end up surprising you. I didn't think much of it at night, either, until I saw you."

It's not like him to be sentimental, and she thinks that perhaps something is up, but nothing prepares her for the small, velvet box he places in her hands as they stand together, back-dropped by a plain grey building that doesn't look at all fateful, surrounded by the cacophonous constancy of their city and a love with the same energy, the same dependability, the same indestructible spirit. He doesn't even get the words out before she gives him her answer and kisses him breathless.


	4. Chapter 4

Prompt: Ami/Zoisite, Museum

Setting: Post-Series, Washington, DC

* * *

It's a bit of an unnecessary indulgence, this trip around the world, but everyone needs to do something for him or herself once in a while. And really, she takes time for herself a bit less than the average. The residency for medical school is as grueling as promised, and then there are the other duties-- equally satisfying, but certainly not a career that one might discuss aloud.

Ami Mizuno takes her first vacation in years and treks across the globe, visiting big cities and small towns alike, without using her henshin pen even once.

It's the end of the second month of a three-month sabbatical and she finds herself in the Hall of Geology, Gems and Minerals in Washington, DC's Smithsonian Natural History Museum. Its collection is one of the biggest in the world; there are hundreds of thousands of different stones, cut and uncut, winking up at her: Earth's bounty.

The Hope Diamond sparkles with sea-blue radiance behind glass, and she pauses to get a look at it and read about the fabled curse that has claimed numerous lives. It's the exact same shade of blue as the stone on her senshi tiara, which makes her chuckle to herself for a moment. It is reputed to have brought death and destruction to anyone who handled it out of greed and covetousness. And now, it is on display, forever behind glass, a beauty and a legend and safely out of reach of those who would possess it, those who would be ruined by it. The irony is not lost upon her and she steps away to look at some of the other stones.

She halts involuntarily in front of a display case of tumbling stones, and inexplicably finds her gaze drawn to a smooth-worn apple-green stone with a vivid blot of blood-red staining it. Zoisite, often inter-growing with ruby crystals in metamorphic rock. She stares down at the not-so-innocent-looking stone and its seemingly blood-splattered surface and sighs. The memories are still vague; she wonders if she prefers it that way.

A shadow falls over her and a smooth tenor voice interrupts her thoughts. "Anything I can help you with in here, miss?" She looks up, a polite nothing on the tip of her tongue, and then she stares, as a young man with longish sandy-blond hair and sharp green eyes behind rimless glasses, a name tag which reads "Zane Weston, Assistant Curator" pinned to his chest, stands in front of her. For the space of three heartbeats no one moves or speaks. There's something startlingly like deja vu visible in his expression.

"I... I'm not sure," she says quietly. The resemblance is uncanny, but there are many fine-featured young men with blond hair and green eyes, of course, and she makes herself relax, give him a smile. It doesn't necessarily mean what she both hopes and fears.

Then he smiles back, and it's a mischievous grin, almost a smirk, and that is too close for coincidence. "If you do, I'll be here waiting. Just let me know."


	5. Chapter 5

Prompt: Rei/Jadeite, "He who will learn to pray, let him go to sea."

Setting: Colonial pirate-ship AU.

* * *

The ship left Tortuga at dusk, and James watched with not a little bit of surprise as the captain's daughter, pistol butts glinting against her belt, crossed herself as the ship sailed off into the horizon. While they'd been in port, he had watched her sparring swords with Zacharias, practicing her marksmanship on empty bottles of rum lined up along a wall. The pirate lass, for all her striking good looks and deceptively ladylike hands, was a deadly and ruthless fighter. And yet, here and now, flames of sunset sky surrounding her like an aura, she prayed.

"It's not usual to see a desperado invoke the Father, Son and Holy Ghost," he remarked in a light tone, joining her by the main mast of the ship. She gazed up at him and her lips quirked into a grin.

"He that will learn to pray, let him go to sea," she quipped. Not all privateers are soulless. I pray for the important things.

"And what would those be?"

"The ship's course to be smooth, the winds to be gentle, the goods to be profitable... and, of course, the safety and health and happiness of everyone on this ship." She sighed and fingered one of her pistols. "Also, that those we do encounter will surrender rather than fight. There's less bloodshed that way."

It was not a sentiment he expected from the enemy, and it bothered him. Those on-board a pirate vessel were supposed to be bloodthirsty, soulless scalawags with no sense of honour or fairness or compassion. He had come on-board the ship knowing as much, and now everything was turned about. Here, he witnessed close friendships, brotherhood and sisterhood among those not tied by blood, honour among thieves and mercy among murderers. Here, he met a woman of grace and beauty and courage as he'd never known before, who wielded a sword as well as a man and yet prayed for her enemies as well as her friends.

The fact that sooner or later he'd have to betray her, to turn her over to his fellow officers in the Royal Navy and leave her to the fate of the hangman's noose, weighed heavily upon his heart. Unable to join in her "Amen", he turned and walked away.


	6. Chapter 6

Prompt: Minako/Kunzite, "Once in a while you get shown light in the strangest of places, if you look at it right."

Setting: Silver Millennium

* * *

The Moon palace is a miracle of perfectly balanced beauty and grace. Magellan Castle, her childhood home, is a vision of sultry lines and flashy arches and domes-- classical Venusian architecture. She doesn't tell Serenity, doesn't tell any of the others, but she, too, sometimes sneaks down to Earth.

It doesn't have the technology, or the elegance, or the perfect weather of the Moon. People jostle her in the marketplace when she visits, veiled and incognito. But it's colourful, and unpredictable, and the challenges faced by a world without magical climate control interest her.

And then sometimes she stumbles upon places of enchanting, heart-clutching beauty.

The palatial fortress rests like a jewel of white amidst green, hilly terraces. The very walls are adorned with intricate carvings and arabesques which take on the appearance of lace carved of stone, and as she runs her fingers carefully over a stone lion's head in a courtyard, she hears the sound of footsteps behind her.

"You are a stranger to this place. Who are you?" The speaker is male, tall and self-assured, and his eyes are the sharp grey-green of a cloudy sea as they gaze down into her face. A sheaf of pale hair brushes broad shoulders and he carries a short-sword that looks as sharp as his eyes. She has never felt so naked while veiled before. "What brings you to the Calat Alhambra?"

"I was visiting close by, from another land," she ventures, hoping that her accent isn't too noticeable as she speaks in the common Terran tongue. "I saw your palace. It's beautiful."

His stern, handsome face breaks into the tiniest of smiles. "It's a fortress, but it's important to have a reminder of something worth fighting for in the darkest of times. My people call this the red fortress, from the clay of the land that was used to build it. The poets call it a pearl set amongst emeralds. Come. I will show you."

She ends up spending hours in this strange and beautiful palace, with a man she doesn't know, exploring chambers that are exquisitely decorated from floor to ceiling, gardens green with new grass and fragrant with colourful wildflowers, and it's like finding light in the darkness. The sun sets, glinting on the rivers nearby, and she bids her host farewell and makes sure to move well into the distance before teleporting back home. It is only when she's back on the Moon that she realizes that neither of them ever gave their names.

A few months later she catches Serenity in the gardens of Elysium's royal palace and comes across the captain of the guard. There's a moment of stunned recognition, and then she blushes as she ushers her charge away.

One night she sneaks down to the red fortress again and meets him unveiled, not completely on accident, and they end up making love in the dark starlit night, to the music of nightingales and river flow. It's forbidden, and she has no business here, and he has no business letting her in.

But they don't think of such things when they're together. Only of beauty, and night-blooming roses, and the light they bring to each other's lives. Light will wink out sooner or later; it is fate, but finding light is a gift that both of them know to treasure for as long as they can.


	7. Chapter 7

Prompt: Ami and Jadeite, Christmas Decorating

Setting: Modern Day Post-Series

"Are you sure you want to do this? The woman's face is grave as she looks up into the man's. Once we finish, it will be difficult to undo."

"Yes," he replies, two pairs of blue eyes in different shades meeting and holding. "Are you afraid?"

"I'm..." The woman bites her lower lip. "It doesn't feel right to do something so... so drastic. Behind her back. Without her permission. And you know as well as I do how she gets when she's mad."

He did indeed. His wife's fiery temper is one of her best and worst features. The woman who is facing him is her polar opposite in a lot of ways, but then again, that is why he sought her out in the first place. Seriously and beseechingly, he reaches over, takes a pair of small, cold hands in his. "I know you have a few misgivings, but I promise, it will be worth it. Please, just this once."

She chuckles wryly and pulls her hands back. "All right. If you truly think this is the right thing to do. In her own house, at that. While she's out Christmas-shopping."

"You know I admire your logic, Ami, but not everything can be governed by that."

Ami takes a deep breath, and places her trust in his hands as she closes her eyes. Jadeite watches silently as she calls upon the powers of her planet and a symphony of dazzling white snowflakes flutter down from the ceiling, enchanted to fall almost to the ground before evaporating harmlessly into the air. Meticulous spell-work meets exquisite winter beauty, and after Ami is done, the house is transformed into a Christmas wonderland. It's the romance of snow and ice without the cold, in a temperate locale known for its mild winters. She opens her eyes, surveys her handiwork with a small, tired smile, and glances at him. "All right. That's about all I can do. What do you think?"

He grins, pulls her into a brief, tight hug that has her squeaking in surprise. "Wonderful. Better than anything I'd be able to do with cotton balls and plastic icicles. You're a good friend, Ami."

She relents and laughs a little. "Well, you two have your romantic white Christmas now. What do you plan on doing with it?"

"Oh, easy. Light a fire in the hearth, make some hot cocoa, get some blankets and let the rest just fall into place." He wiggles his eyebrows and she slaps him lightly on the arm, but she's laughing as she leaves the house.

Ten months later Ami coos at her newborn goddaughter and acknowledges silently that Jadeite was right after all.


	8. Chapter 8

Prompt: Setsuna and Nephrite, samsara/counting stars

Setting: Crystal Tokyo Era

* * *

Setsuna is given the duty of seeking the last of the four shitennou, still absent from Crystal Tokyo, and it does not take long for her to find him.

A journey across an ocean is but a blink of an eye for the Guardian of Time. It makes sense that Nephrite would be found in North America, his ancestral kingdom. After all, Jadeite had arrived from the valleys and wilds of Hangzhou, and Zoisite from the cliffs and green hills of County Clare. Kunzite had come after them, hailing from a tiny speck of a town on the edge of the Arabian desert, and now it is three years since his arrival, and the fourth of their group remains missing.

She finds him outside a lonely lodge on the cold Canadian prairie. He wears a fur-lined parka to shield himself against the cold, but sits with his face to the wind, eyes fixed upon the heavens. She clears her throat; he's only startled for a moment before he inclines his head. "I suppose I should not be surprised that you found me."

"No," she answers coolly, raising an eyebrow. "I know a lot more than your location. Name: Nick Renshaw. Age: twenty-eight as of March 23rd. You work as a naturalist, though your parents left you a sizable inheritance. You certainly know who-- what you are. Yet you live alone and keep to yourself, and are content to have nothing but the calls of owls and the stars in the sky for company."

He sighs and pushes back the hood of the parka he wears, revealing flowing brown locks and a strong-boned, solemn face. "Do you know what that is?" he asks Setsuna, pointing at one of the numerous constellations in the sky.

She nods. "Orion. It's visible because the winter is approaching."

"Orion was a hunter who betrayed the goddess he swore his allegiance to, who played false to Diana's trust and esteem, and in the end the Gods were forced to send a giant scorpion after him and end his life," Nephrite says slowly. "Now he's up in the skies only in the coldest months of the year, when Scorpio isn't visible. He smirks ironically. I'm serving my penance, Lady Pluto. A year for every star in the sky."

"That's a number ever-changing," she points out. Like the scorpion of her star sign, she prefers to conquer silently and bloodlessly. First she must put him at ease, though, and she leans back against the door of his wooden lodge. "Zoisite sent a photograph with me for you." She hands it over and he takes a look, then grins at the image of his comrade of several lifetimes, elation and panic warring in his vivid green eyes, holds a tiny pink-wrapped bundle in his arms. A tuft of distinct blue hair is visible on the baby's head.

"The youngest of us is a father, hmm?" Nick allows himself a chuckle. "And a little girl at that. He'll have his hands full."

"Jadeite and Mars have three boys," Setsuna tells him dryly. "Rei claims that it's fate laughing at her for being so contemptuous of men in her youth. The oldest of them is four and has a bit of a crush on Jupiter. It's rather sweet."

A wistful expression crosses his face for a moment and Setsuna knows that she has him. She glances back up at the starry sky. "You know, another version of the story says that Orion was killed unjustly, and Diana, in honour of her earthly counterpart, put his image up in the skies so that she would remember him always. She takes a silent step forward. You can serve your penance, living alone with only the stars for company, doing no harm but also doing no good, or you can atone for your sins through your actions and reunite with your king and your love."

Scorpio, aligned right now with the sun, isn't visible in the sky, but still her attacks point true. "Your sense of penitence is honourable, but misplaced in this instance. Your king needs his protectors, and you stand in the way of your own happiness. She gentles her voice, and smiles at him sadly. Being alone means nothing but that the world will pass you by, and oftentimes you're left with nothing but missed opportunities and old memories. The stars in the sky are not a substitute for the lives you don't save, the risks you don't take, the life you don't live. I know... I know."

He frowns at that, and she cuts him off with a wave of a graceful hand. "Just think about it while you're counting stars and recalling the tales of the Gods, Nick Renshaw. Now, go inside and sleep. It's late, and it's cold." She vanishes, and leaves him to his night sky and his lonely cabin.

A month and a half later Lord Nephrite joins his peers in the fledgling paradise of Crystal Tokyo in time for Christmas. In the sky, Orion glitters.


End file.
